Detail of the map; pencil and brushed on dry pigment. The hard black shapes on a white background indicate buildings I know are there. When I’m less sure, the edge and coloring soften.
THE AARHUS DRAWING
2013 // COPENHAGEN
Shortly after moving to Aarhus (the second largest city in Denmark) I was biking trying to catch the train, when I realized that I didn’t even know if I was biking the fastest route, in my head this would be the fastest between the school of architecture and the train station, but what did Aarhus even look like in my mind.
After leaving Aarhus 3 years later, this question still haunted me, so I pulled out a sheet of A2 paper and started to draw a plan of Aarhus. To ensure that the drawing wouldn’t just be the image of Aarhus that I knew from the maps, I needed to draw it at a scale great enough to catch all it’s nuances. A scale greate enough, that I needed to revisit the streets of Aarhus in my mind, “so when existing my studio at the architecture school and walking to the bar, I would first sway slight right, then not be able to see the end of the street, so it would have a right bend to it, then midway would be the cross street and now I can see the end of it…” and so I would tell myself this story of Aarhus, while tracing it out on paper. Eventually taking up 48 sheets of A2 paper, approx. 128.8 sq ft.
Wherever I couldn’t remember a part, I would simply not draw it in, making this, the most accurate map of Aarhus to me. And then to realize that we all hold this personal map of any given city within us, based on our lives. This drawing was an offering to draw out all of our cities, to discuss what they mean to us, and how we see and experience the place that we live.
The Aarhus Drawing, a digital copy of a hand-drawn map, pencil and brushed on black dry pigment on white paper, of the city of Aarhus in plan.
Detail of the map; pencil and brushed on dry pigment.
Detail of the map; pencil and brushed on dry pigment. A few scattered buildings are seen along a wide road. Two U-shapes facing the road, suggests an underpass.
Detail of the map; pencil and brushed on dry pigment. The city center is depicted with heavy building blocks intersected by streets and narrow alleyways. Dashed lines cutting through a building indicate an interior public street, while a cross-shaped symbol to the right marks the main cathedral.